Deliberately Choosing to Live Like a Child of God

Please open God's Word to Hebrews chapter 11. I had not intended to say anything about verse 23.

But I will. It says, By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful. And they were not afraid of the king's edict. They did this by faith. You know, faith is. Faith is believing what God has said. Especially when the only reason for believing it is because God has said it. Now, we don't read of God's special revelation to Moses' parents.

But there must have been one because when they hid him, they did it by faith. And I thought I would make a comment on this because, as several of you know, today is my 60th birthday. And so I look back over six decades, first few years I don't remember. But I would gather that being born is a fairly stressful event. I can tell from observation that it's stressful on the mother's side of things. But it also must be a great shock to be born when you're a little baby. And to leave the warm, wet place where you have lived all of your life and be born into what must seem like a very cold and dry place.

And on my birthday, I almost always think back to what must have happened on that day. And remember that there was a young, pretty 23-year-old woman who loved me well. And there was a young 24-year-old man who received me into his strong hands. And I can never be thankful enough for that. And so what an enormous blessing to have godly parents.

And I wanted to bring it up not just for the benefit of saying what I just said, but also to encourage those of you who are devoting yourself to the task. There is no more noble task in the world than rearing children for God. And Moses was blessed in that he had parents who, while they could, use the influence that they had to grow him up for God. Of course, much of his childhood apparently was in Pharaoh's palace. But there came a time when he chose to follow God, and it meant that he had to leave the palace. The pastor has just read the text, but let me read it again, beginning in verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, when he was come of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. One of my favorite books was written by a Christian brother who lived about 1500 years ago. At about the time that the Roman Empire was being overtaken by marauding tribes, the Visigoths from the north, this man named Boethius lived. Now he has several unpronounceable first names, and he just usually is known by the last name of Boethius. And it may surprise you, because I dare say that many of you are hearing the name Boethius for the first time, that Boethius was the most read book of the Middle Ages. So he wrote a book called The Consolation of Philosophy. And there's something in that book that has caused me to use him as the introductory example.

Now, I do believe that he was a brother in Christ. He had writings that were very influential in the Christian church's understanding of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Trinity has several theological tractates. He also wrote very influential tracts, small books on mathematics, on music, on astronomy, and on geometry. So those four disciplines, along with grammar, logic, and rhetoric, make up the seven liberal arts. And he is largely responsible for adding those four that I just mentioned, astronomy, geometry, mathematics, and music, he's largely responsible for adding those to the classical curriculum. So many of you have a liberal arts education, and if you're like I am, when I graduated with my liberal arts bachelor's degree, I couldn't have named the seven liberal arts.

And that's the basis, that's been considered, these are the basic things that you need in order to be fully human and participate in the human conversation. And so Boethius wrote, he was a scholar in philosophy, in both Aristotle and in Plato. But when the Goths came down and overtook Rome, then the Goths were very much under the influence of a theological perspective on the person of Christ that is known as Arianism. You may not know the term, but you're familiar with Aryans because Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are Aryans. And their Christology is that Jesus Christ is not eternal with the Father, but that he was created.

The most important of all God's creation, but nevertheless, Aryans are not Trinitarians, and they believe that Jesus was created. On the other hand, not too long before that, a man named Athanasius had argued that Jesus was the second person to the Trinity, and he was eternal God with God. And the Western Christianity, Rome embraced Athanasian Christianity, but the Visigoths were under the influence of Arianism.

And so one of the ways that they would test on whether or not someone was loyal to the new government was they would try to determine what was his Christology, what did he believe about Christ. And Boethius believed that Christ was eternally God. And so Boethius was imprisoned, exiled gives you a better idea. So don't think of him as being put into a dungeon with bars, but he was exiled to a place when he was a fairly young man in his 40s.

And he was executed in a very brutal way. But before he died, while he was in exile, he wrote this book called The Consolation of Philosophy. I almost always have people ask me about the book The Consolation of Philosophy afterwards. And so if you're curious about it, I'll just tell you right now, you should get the edition that is published by St. Ignatius Press.

I've taught out of other editions, and I can tell you that the one by St. Ignatius Press is just so much easier to understand than anything else that is out there. The book has been highly valued for centuries. King Alfred in the 10th century translated it. Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century.

Queen Elizabeth I translated it. So it's been a highly valuable book. And it's a very thought-provoking book. And I do encourage you, if you are interested in thinking thoroughly about these things, to get The Consolation of Philosophy and read it very carefully. But in The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius identifies the five gifts of fortune.

Now Boethius writes the book in the first person, and while he's in exile, he imagines that lady philosophy comes and reasons with him. Why are you so sad? You haven't really lost anything of value. The only thing that you have lost are the five gifts of fortune. And since they are the gifts of fortune, you were never guaranteed them to begin with. Many of you are familiar with the game The Wheel of Fortune. The name for that game is taken from an ancient concept, that there was something like a goddess who had a wheel.

Instead of being horizontal like the game show, it was more like vertical. And then fortune would just give that wheel a spin. And if you came out in a good place, then you got some of the good gifts of fortune. If you came out in a bad place, then you never got the gifts of fortune. But all of those people were considered fortunate who got the gifts of fortune. And those five gifts of fortune are wealth, power, pleasure, positions of honor, and fame. And that's a very insightful gathering of the five things that people have always longed for.

Listen to them again. Wealth. Almost everybody wants wealth. Power.

Nearly everyone wants to be in a position to tell other people what to do. Pleasures. Physical pleasures.

Nearly everyone is fighting to get some kind of physical pleasures. Positions of honor. Distinct from honor. Honor is a good thing to pursue. But just wanting to have a position of honor so that you will be admired. And then the final thing is fame.

And it seems to be more prominent in these days than perhaps it has been, because with all of the social media and the various things that are available on the Internet, it looks like fame is within reach of the average person more easily than it has been in times gone by. So Boethius identifies these five things and says it is very interesting. I'm tempted to go on more about the book, but I'm just about to have to leave it there. He says none of these things are worth devoting your life for. And Boethius was a man who had enjoyed many of those things, as was Moses, the person who is talked about and set forth for us in the text as an example of the way that we should deliberately choose to live as sons and daughters of God.

I am so thankful that after having been a Christian since 1975, so for these 45 years, so so thankful that there are some things that were a temptation to me in 1975 that are no longer a temptation for me. And then if you've been walking with Christ for any amount of time, then you probably have sins over which you have gained similar victories. But then there are fresh challenges that come and you can never just fold your hands and coast and say, well, I've got this now. Living the Christian life with purpose and meaning does take deliberation. You have to think about it. You have to make decisions.

And sometimes those decisions come upon you unexpectedly and suddenly you're confronted with having to make a decision that you never anticipated. But you have to deliberately choose that you're going to live life like a son of God or like a daughter of God. Certainly, Moses had to make that kind of a deliberate decision. He was a man who was blessed with the five gifts of fortune.

Just think about it. He, as a young baby, was adopted into the family of the most influential ruler on earth. But when he became old enough, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Well, I'm starting to get into my text tonight, so let me go ahead and give you the three points. So the first one is I'm going to answer the question or let the text answer the question. What did Moses refuse? What did Moses refuse?

And then secondly, a similar question. What did Moses choose? So what did Moses refuse? What did Moses choose? And then the third and the greater part of the sermon will consist of answering the question.

Why? Why did he refuse what he refused? Why did he choose what he chose?

And so if you'll direct your attention to the text or remind yourself of what it says, it says that Moses, when he was grown up, when he became a man, he he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, living as the son of Pharaoh's daughter would probably have granted him access to all five of the gifts of fortune. Did he have wealth?

Oh, yes. The wealth of Egypt was storied. And when some of us think of gold and silver and in massive amounts, the thing that we think of is some of the gold, golden artifacts that were discovered in the tomb of King Tut. And what he had, what did he have access to power? Oh, yes, he has. He had access to power, not in the Bible, but in other books that talk about Moses and his life in Egypt. You may have heard of the writings of Josephus. Josephus says that Moses had led a very successful military campaign against some of the enemies of Egypt and that he was a very powerful man. So he had access to wealth. He had access to power. Was was it a position of prestige? Can you imagine how many people slaving in Egypt thought that he had the nicest position in all the land to be part of the royal family or what? What a great deal of prestige and what a position of honor he had and how famous he was.

He had it all. And much of it was connected with his being in the household of Pharaoh's daughter. But when he got old enough, when he became a man, he was of age. He refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Not only did he refuse to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but if you'll look a little further in the text, you'll see that he refused. He refused pleasures. In verse 25, he chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Here were all these pleasures that were within his reach. And he turned away from a pleasurable life. Not only that, but if you see in verse 26, he made choices that meant that he had to leave these great hordes of Egyptian wealth behind.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. So he refused a position of honor and power. He refused a position that afforded him pleasures. He refused a situation where he had probably unimaginable treasures at his disposal. This is what he refused.

Now, what did he choose? It says that he chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God. Now, who in his right mind would choose a life that entailed mistreatment? When you and I are mistreated, we feel the smart of it. We feel the pain of it. We feel the injustice of it.

I believe that God has so constituted us so that we feel a kind of resentment for it. And certainly Moses was not some kind of a misogynist, I mean, masochist. He wasn't someone who just enjoyed being mistreated, but he chose mistreatment. And not only that, but he chose reproach. You can see further in the text that he chose mistreatment and he chose reproach. Now, why would a man choose something like that? Why would a man refuse the things that were available to him that most of the world wants? And why would he choose these situations that no one wants mistreatment and reproach?

Why would he do it? Well, the first thing is it's not because he was caught up in the hot blooded ardor of youth. So I think that the reason it tells us that he was full grown when he did this is to say he's not some kind of hotheaded high school kid here.

He's not some kind of crazy, idealistic college kid who just wants to join a protest somewhere. He's thought through this. And deliberately, in the coolness of thought, he said, this is the decision that I'm going to make.

I'm going to refuse these things and I'm going to choose these other things. So it wasn't because he was some kind of idealistic, hotheaded youth and that he later on regretted his decision. But the Bible tells us that he chose this by faith. He chose it by faith.

I've already told you, but I'll say it again. Faith is believing what God has said, especially when the only reason that you have for believing it is because God has said it. There's a great deal of misunderstanding about what faith is in this country. And the most common misunderstanding is that faith is strong optimism. If I really believe that something is going to happen and if I hope hard enough that it's going to happen, that's faith.

And so you'll hear people in distressing situations just encouraging one another. You've got to have faith. I think that everything is going to turn out, they will say, because I have faith. And what they really mean is I just have this strong optimism. Well, what's your reason for having such optimism? I don't know. You've just got to believe.

You just got to have confidence that this is going to happen. And I have seen this operate tragically in the lives of some of my friends. When I was a young man, there was a friend of mine that I would visit in the nursing home. He was not that much older than I was. He had been a healthy Marine. And when he was in a bar one night, someone hit him over the head with a beer mug and he woke up six months later, a quadriplegic. And so he he had to learn how to talk.

He gained a little bit of movement in one of his hands and he could feed himself, but he couldn't chew. And so his tray was always a mess. And he always had this Bible on his tray that was wrinkled with saliva. But he knew that Bible very well. And he was a brother in Christ. He he would he tell me in his very slow way, I'm not going to imitate the way that he spoke, but a very, very slow way. He would say, I thank God that this happened to me because as a result of this, I've come to Christ. But in his later years, he came under the influence of people who had that misunderstanding of faith, that faith is strong optimism.

And if you just believe strongly enough that something is going to happen, then it will happen. And so in those later years, I would come in to see him and call him by name, say, how are you doing? And he would say, I'm healed.

I'm healed. There he is. Not quite a quadriplegic.

He has a little bit of movement in one hand, but legs stretched out in front of him. And people have to take care of almost his every need. I'm healed, he would say. And I never was mean enough to tell him, obviously, you are not healed, you're still sitting here in this nursing home, in this wheelchair. But he would he continued to say that because he was under the influence of that wrong teaching, which says that faith is strong optimism. But faith is believing what God has said. And if you read through Hebrews Chapter 11, you'll see that in virtually every case of people who are held up before us as examples of people who lived life by faith. The only reason they had for doing the things that they did was because God had told them to do it. And so they believe what God had said and they obeyed him. And by faith, Moses made these decisions.

But there are a few things. Now, you know, the faith is a faith is a legitimate way of knowing. There are people who act like faith is some kind of. Some kind of cheating that if you say, you know something because it's written in the Bible.

Well, that's cheating. That may be true for you, they'll say, but it's not true for everybody else. And I'm amazed that the Christians who have just kind of smiled a little embarrassed smile and shrugged their shoulders and said, well, you've got me there. So get this get this clearly into your head. Faith is a legitimate means of knowing.

In fact. Faith is the only way that you can know the most important things in life. The most important truths in life are not explained to us so that we can decipher them. They are revealed to us so that we can believe them. And faith believes what God has said, especially when the only reason for believing it is because God has said it. But once you have granted that, then reason is a legitimate means also of determining why this is so. And so there are some reasons given in this text as to why Moses refused what he refused and why he chose what he chose.

Let's see what some of them are. It says in verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God. Now, there's the first reason. In order for him to affiliate himself with the people of God, he had to leave behind.

Other affiliations. And you might say, well, thank God he hasn't called me to do that. But the fact of the matter is, he has called you to do that.

He has called me to do that. The Lord Jesus has said, unless you hate your mother and your father and your sister and brother, you cannot be my disciple. Now there, Jesus is speaking hyperbolically. The same Bible that contains those words of Jesus also tells us that we are to honor our father and our mother. So what Jesus is saying is that your devotion to me must be so great that every other devotion that you have, even to your mother and your father and your sister and your brother and your children and your wife, all of those other devotions must pale into a far distant second place in comparison to your love and devotion to me.

You are going to be mine. Once Jesus was teaching and a woman called out and said, blessed is the mother who gave birth to you and took care of you as a baby. She was a little more specific than that, but that's essentially what she said. And Jesus said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. You just think what a what a blessing it would be to be Mary, the mother of Jesus.

What a blessing. But Jesus said, if you hear the word of God and obey it, you're more blessed than Mary. It's more blessed for you to know the word of God and to obey it than it was for Mary to have the honor to be the woman who was chosen to bear God's son.

Now, I trust that Mary became a believer and that she was not only blessed to be his mother, but she participated in this greater blessing that Jesus talked about in being someone who heard the word of God and obeyed it. One day, Jesus was in a northern part of his stomping grounds and he was met there by a woman, a Syrophoenician woman. She wasn't a Jew. Now, you know, in Jesus' life, Jews never fraternized with non-Jews.

And there were special special rules about how you had to behave around them. And this Syrophoenician woman had a had a daughter who was possessed by a demon and was in bad shape. And so she came to Jesus and she starts asking him, will you heal my daughter? And Jesus ignores her. And so she just keeps on pestering Jesus and the disciples until finally the disciples come to Jesus and they say, send her away.

She's about to drive us crazy. And so Jesus then stops and says to her, what is it you want? And she said, I want you to heal my daughter. And then Jesus said, it's not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs.

That's pretty rough, isn't it? This is Jesus. Nice, loving Jesus. What's he calling this woman? Saying you are a dog. It's not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Now, why would Jesus say such a mean thing? Well, there was a lesson in it for her.

There's a lesson in it for us. Now, that woman was faced with a decision. She might have said. Well, I'll tell you this, Jew boy. Ain't nobody going to call me and my family dogs.

You just keep your own healing power. And I dare say that's that's what some people would have done. Maybe that's what you would have done.

Maybe that's what I would have done. But that's not what she did. She did not respond that way. Instead, she said. Yes, Lord. But even the little dogs under the table get to eat the crumbs that fall from the children's plates. Now, we don't read anywhere in the Bible that Jesus laughed.

So I'm using my imagination here. When I say that, I suspect that Jesus just threw his head back and laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. Because she had passed the test with flying colors.

It was a hard test. He had called her and her people group dogs. It's not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. But she came back with a response of faith.

Yes, but can't you even give a few crumbs to the dogs under the table? And Jesus said, for this answer, you will receive what you have asked for. And I believe that she received something else.

She came from under the table and sat down at the table with the children. And that is the lesson that was in it for her and that is in it for us. We have to choose like Moses and say they may be a despised people. They may be looked down upon by the world. But they are my people. My people are not, first of all, white folks. My people are not, first of all, educated people. My people are not, first of all, rich people.

My people are not hunters. My people are not members of some political party. My people are the people of God. Your people must be the people of God. And you, I, anybody is going down an extremely dangerous path when they say, well, first of all, you have got to respect my political party before I'm going to fraternize with you. First of all, you've got to respect my people group before I'm going to fraternize with you. All of that is so unimportant into the fact, again, comparison to the fact that you and I love the Lord.

We are adopted into his family. We are his people. Moses chose.

That's the people that I want to be with. They are despised, enslaved people, but they're my people because they are God's people. And so why did he choose as he chose, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter? Because if he stayed in that palace, it meant that he was never going to be with the people of God. And Jesus tells us similar to something that he had to tell Moses, you cannot serve God and mammon.

You just can't do it. And there are Christian groups and Christian individuals all around the world who are saying you can have it both ways. You can serve God and you can serve mammon. But Jesus says you can't do it.

One of them is going to be the master. And Moses said, well, then if it means that I have to leave the house of Pharaoh's daughter, then I will. And I will affiliate myself with the despised people of God. Let's see why else he refused what he refused and why did he choose what he chose? Said that he chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Oh, he refused pleasures, but he saw that these pleasures were just fleeting pleasures, the pleasures of sin for a while. There's no point in denying the fact that sin gives you access to pleasure.

But just understand this. All the pleasures that sin affords are brief. All the pleasures that sin affords are fleeting pleasures.

They just last for a little while. And so Moses looked at that and he could imagine how it would be fun to enjoy those pleasures. But when he saw that there were other pleasures that were available to him, he knew that he could not hold on to the pleasures of sin. And so he turned away from it.

And neither can you and neither can I. You cannot continue to devote yourself to the fleeting pleasures of sin and be a follower of the Lord. You must repent. Let's see why else Moses chose as he did and why he refused. It says in verse 26, he considered the reproach of Christ. Now, why would he choose reproach? Oh, it was the reproach of Christ. It was the reproach that comes inevitably with being a follower of Jesus Christ.

But it was the reproach of Christ. And so we consider that to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. He put the two in the balance and he said, the reproach of Christ is worth more than all these vast, glittering heaps of gold and jewels that are at my fingertips. Christ is worth more than all of that.

Some of us grew up singing a song that expresses this truth. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I'd rather be true to his holy name. I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause. I'd rather be true to his holy cause than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. And when Moses looked at being with Jesus or having all of these pleasures and treasures of Egypt, he said, I'd rather have Jesus.

Notice the last thing that is said in my text. It says that he was looking to the reward. Now, there are a lot of Christians who are confused about this. They think that if you take the reward into consideration, that somehow it takes away from the legitimacy of the motivation of your obedience. But virtually every page of the Bible will hold before you the incentive of reward as a legitimate motivation for doing what is right. Do what is right and God will reward you.

Go into your closet and close the door. And your God who and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. There are enormous treasures and rewards that are offered to people who are faithful, and it is legitimate for us to look ahead to those rewards and say, I want it.

I want what God has. I'm looking forward to it. I've fought a good fight.

I finished the course. I've kept the faith and henceforth. There is laid up for me a reward, not just for me, but for all who obey the Lord and look for his coming.

He is coming and he is going to reward people who have been faithful to him. And it's better than anything that you will give up. This past summer, I was faced with a decision that I thought was a moral decision, but to make the right decision meant that I was going to lose a lot of money. And there was a certain amount of tithes and offerings that my wife and I give to the church where I'm the pastor. And it was the amount was going to be considerably more than our income on the surface looked like it would support. So we were going to church one day after this.

I had reached this decision. I told my wife I couldn't I couldn't do this wrong thing if they offered me a million dollars. And so we were on the way to church one morning and I said, go ahead and write the check for today's tithes and offerings. And she said, how much do you want me to make it for? I said, make it for the usual amount. And she said, well, Jim, you know, we don't have that money coming in now. And my 18 year old daughter spoke up from the backseat and said, yeah, that I don't think it's a good idea. And I said, look, let's let's keep giving this until we run out.

And everybody says you can't outgive the Lord, but nobody ever tries. So let's let's give what we have been accustomed to giving. And so my wife said, well, I agree with that. So she wrote out the check for the usual amount. Now, this that week that week I received a letter and in the letter there was a check from an association. I usually speak for that association during their summer camp and they usually pay me very generously.

So it's a really good. But they canceled the camp. So I wasn't going to get that income. But the the head of the association said, we've decided that we are going to pay you for the camp anyway. And give you this extra just to incentivize you to come back next year.

Was six thousand dollars. So I. Called my family into the kitchen, said, you remember that conversation we had on the way to church last Sunday? Look at this. So let's pray and thank the Lord. I started off saying, oh, God, you own the cattle on a thousand hills. And that's as far as I could get.

He owns it all. There was a king of Judah who got into a bad relationship with the king of Israel, and they were going to go to battle together. And a man of God came and said to the king from Judah, don't go with don't go.

God's not with Israel. And the man and the king of Israel said, but what shall I do for the ten thousand talents of silver that I have used to to hire these these men of Israel to go into battle with me? And the man of God said to him, the Lord is able to give you much more than this. And the king did what was right. He sent those ten thousand hired soldiers from Israel back home and they were mad and threw a little fit and everything.

But but they won the battle without without the bad soldiers. And then we're left with that golden nugget to encourage us in the decisions that we face that are similar to those that Moses was faced with, because we are faced with those decisions. The Lord is able to give you much more than this. Write it on your heart. Remember it when you're tempted to maybe be a little dishonest because you can get a little bit more money. Maybe be a little quieter about Jesus when your conscience is telling you you ought to speak up.

Just remember, the Lord is able to give you much more than this. Have respect for the reward that the Lord offers to those who are faithful to him. I want to conclude with telling you a story that's been set to verse.

It was about a woman who lived about 300 years ago, although in this poem you can tell that the poem about her was written about 100 years after this event happened. In the 18th century revival, there was a a man from a noble family named Rowland Hill, who was converted to become a follower of Christ, and he became a street preacher. And as a street preacher, he was able to attract fairly large crowds. And one day he was preaching in the King's Highway, and there was such a throng of people listening to him that the King's Highway was blocked up. And so that will set you the background for this story. So will you listen, kind friends, for a moment while a story to you I unfold. It's a marvelous tale of a wondrous sail of a noble lady of old. How hand and heart at an auction mart, soul and body, she was sold. It was in the King's Highway near a century ago that a preacher stood of noble blood telling the fallen and the low of a savior's love and a home above and a peace that they all could know.

All gathered around to listen, and they wept at the wondrous love that could wash their sin and receive them in his spotless mansion above. While slow through the crowd, a lady proud in her gilded chariot drove. Make room, cried the haughty outrider. You're blocking the King's Highway. Their majesty's wait and my lady is late.

Give way there, good people, I pray. The preacher heard and his soul was stirred, and he cried to the rider, nay! His eye like the lightning flashes, his voice like a trumpet rings. Your grand, fat days and your fashions and ways are all but perishing things. Tis the King's Highway, but I hold it today in the name of the King of Kings.

Then bending his gaze on the woman and marking her soft eye fall. And now in his name a sale I proclaim and bids for this fair lady call. Who will purchase the whole, body and soul, coronet, jewels and all?

I already see three bidders. The world steps up as the first. I'll give her my pleasures and all the treasures for which my votaries thirst.

She'll dance every day more joyous and gay with a quiet grave at the worst. But up steps the tempter boldly. The kingdoms of earth are mine. Fair lady thy name with an envied fame on their brightest tablets shall shine. Only give me thy soul and I'll give thee the whole, their glory and wealth to be thine. And pray, what hast thou to offer, thou man of sorrows unknown? And he gently said, my blood I have shed to purchase her for mine own. To conquer the grave and her soul to save, I bore the judgment alone. I'll give her my cup of suffering, my cross of sorrow to share. But with an endless love in my home above, all shall be righted there.

She'll walk in light, in a robe of white, and a radiant crown shall wear. Thou hast heard the terms, fair lady, that each hath offered for thee. Which wilt thou choose and which wilt thou lose? This life or the life to be? The fable was mine, but the choice has yet thine.

Sweet lady, which of the three? Nearer the stand of the preacher the gilded chariot stole. And each head was bowed as over the crowd the thundering accents roll. And every word as the lady heard burned in her very soul. Pardon good people, she whispered as she rose from her cushioned seat.

Full well, they say, as the crowd made way you could hear her pulses beat. And each head was bare as the lady fair knelt at the preacher's feet. She took from her hands the jewels, the coronet from her brow. Lord Jesus, she said as she bowed her head, the highest bitter art thou. Thou gazed for my sake thy life and I take thine offer and take it now. Give me thy cup of suffering. Welcome earth sorrow and loss. Let my portion be to win souls for thee. Perish earth's glittering dross.

I gladly lay down her coveted crown. Savior, to take up thy cross. Amen, said the noble preacher, and the people wept aloud.

Years have rolled on and they all have gone who formed that awestruck crowd. Lady and throng have been swept along on the wind like a morning cloud. But the Savior has claimed his purchase. And round his radiant throne a mightier song, a mightier throng with an endless song, will soon his praises repeat. And a form more fair while bending there will lay her crown at his feet. So now in the eternal glory she rests from her cross and her care, but with an endless love from her home above, she calls upon you to share in the joy of her Lord and her endless reward.

Will you not answer her there? Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the example of great saints of the past, like this woman who was converted through the preaching of Rowland Hill. Like Moses, who when he was old enough refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Help us like him to walk by faith and to esteem reproach for the cause of Christ, along with the people of Christ, to be greater than anything that is offered to us by the world or by the devil or by fortune. Help us, Lord, to believe you and to walk with you all of our days and to deliberately choose to live like sons and daughters of God. Amen.